An Unlikely Aid
by The Water Drinker
Summary: Yugi is feeling bummed over a dispute with Joey. While he sulks around in Kaiba Land, he receives some help from a most unlikely source. A challengefic! Rivalshipping.


A sigh passed the lips of the greatest duel monsters' duelist that ever stepped foot in a stadium. The one and only Yugi Mutou. It was a sigh full of sadness as he stood at one of the arenas that decorated the inside of Kaiba Land's stadium. He was at this particular stadium so he could challenge the AIs and possibly any duelists that dared to even step up to him after getting over the initial shock of actually seeing the King of Games in person.

Normally Yugi didn't like to participate in these mundane, little events unless there was a tournament going on. Mostly because there wasn't anyone worth playing against and it typically caused too many disputes. He couldn't so much as compliment one person on their strategies without someone else getting jealous. The whole fame thing was actually quite frustrating for him. Sometimes it could be charming, and sometimes it did make him feel flattered.

But he wasn't here to stroke his own ego by having people fawn over him, nor was he here to cause any disputes. He was here for one specific reason. He wanted to get his mind off of certain events that were leading him to feel depressed.

Usually Yugi would play against his best friend, Joey Wheeler, when he so fancied a duel that would be both challenging and rewarding. Unfortunately, his best friend was why he was here today. Him and Joey had gotten into quite the argument. It had seemed so trivial at first, and then it kind of just grew into something more. Just a little comment here, a little white lie there, and soon enough a little snow ball turned into an avalanche of raging, back-and-forth emotions.

Pretty soon, Joey stopped answering his calls. If he went over to his house, the boy was conveniently not home.

" _What's the point? We're just going to get into another fight."_

The words had stuck in his mind. Until eventually, Yugi got fed up with the blond. The next he did finally get to speak with him, probably because Joey had started to feel guilty to some degree, he had a few choice words for his friend. None too appropriate either. It hadn't ended well.

Now they were hardly speaking at all. Yugi regretted every bit of it. He just kept thinking about it. What he should have said, what he could have done. He shouldn't have yelled at Joey. He should have just said sorry.

But now it felt like it had spiraled out of control. If he tried to talk with Joey again, _would_ they just get into another fight? Yugi didn't want to deal with being disappointed again. He also didn't want to just go up to the blond and spew a bunch of apologies. He had always felt like a doormat all throughout school. He didn't want to feel like that anymore. There had to be a line that he just wouldn't cross for his own sake.

It was all weighing heavily on his mind. It felt like excess baggage that he just couldn't shake off.

So he dueled. One after another, his opponents would meet the same fate. Each one lost spectacularly quickly. His matches hardly ever got to the fourth turn.

"You can come back and try again whenever you'd like." He would tell them.

The AI was hardly fairing any better. Even on the most difficult setting. Yugi found himself letting out another drawn out sigh. This was suppose to help him. Instead, it was only reminding him of how much fun he used to have whenever he dueled with Joey.

Perhaps he should just go and apologize profusely until the blond forgave him. Only problem was, Yugi hardly remembered what he should apologize for. Their petty fights just kind of started and then didn't really stop. He wondered if Joey even knew what they were even fighting over. He wondered if it was simply their pride that kept them from dealing with the situation.

"Do you have a problem?"

A raspy, condescending voice spoke out to him. It startled Yugi into spinning around fast where he stood in the arena after just winning another game with the AI. The person he saw was none other than the owner of Kaiba Land himself. Seto loomed over him ominously with his arms crossed and his signature scowl on his face.

"W-what? Why would I have a problem?" Yugi asked as he fidgeted with his cards. That scowl of Seto's only became more threatening.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you're scaring away all of my customers by making them feel inadequate while you sulk about my stadium like someone just kicked your dog."

"I-I just wanted to play some games. I thought maybe I could find a challenge." Yugi wasn't sure what to really say. He wasn't really in the mood to deal with an irate Kaiba. He should probably leave. Maybe Ryou would play a game with him, or Tristan or Tea. Though, he doubted any of them would put up much more of a challenge.

"Then go duel with that third-rate duelist, Wheeler. I'm sure he might be able to last at least until the second turn." Kaiba noticed when Yugi's face immediately fell at the mention of the blond haired duelist. The taller man quirked an eyebrow at the King of Games. "Seems like your dog literally did get kicked."

Yugi mustered up enough willpower to send the arrogant man a half-hearted glare. It died out quickly though, as his face fell back into its previous saddened state.

"We're just... having a bit of a disagreement right now."

Seto looked curious by the idea of the two of them fighting. "I find that hard to believe. With the way you two are practically glued to each other's hips all the time like Siamese twins and all."

Yugi just let out another exhale as he scooped up the remainder of his cards and placed them back into their holder. "I'll leave. Sorry for disturbing the peace."

Yugi started to walk off with his head tilted downwards. He must have looked pretty pitiful, because Seto called out for him to stop. Yugi did so and turned partly around to look over at the dragon duelist in confusion.

"You said you wanted a challenge?" Seto started as he pulled out his own deck from his pocket. "Then let's go."

Yugi took a moment to consider the offer. If there was ever someone worthy of playing against, it would definitely be Seto Kaiba. And a challenge was what he wanted, right?

"Right now?"

Seto smirked at him. "I have time. You certainly have nothing better to do."

Yugi shrugged. "I guess."

"Follow me then." With that, the young CEO walked off somewhere in the stadium. Yugi followed him wordlessly. He didn't have much to say, and talking with Kaiba never really led to much conversation outside of duel monsters and how great he was.

Yugi did start to pay attention, however, when he noticed people were becoming more sparse the farther they walked. He looked around in confusion before directing a curious glance at his rival's back. Yugi figured Kaiba would have led them to one of the more popular arenas in the stadium, but they seemed to be veering away from the crowd. From his past experiences dealing with the CEO of Kaiba Corp, Yugi always expected the man to go all out with his grand displays.

However, the King of Games was left surprised when Kaiba led him to a private room modernly decorated with only a single table in its center. Two simple chairs were positioned on either side of the little table.

What was this exactly, Yugi wondered. No extravagantly large arena with flashy lights and larger than life holograms? No huge crowd around them? Were there hidden cameras in the room or something?

Yugi felt hesitant when he stepped into the room. He felt like he was walking into some kind of trap. Kaiba walked into the room undeterred by Yugi's apprehension, and sat down into one of the chairs and crossed his legs. Yugi stared at him a moment, then looked around the room once more.

"Well?" Kaiba's voice startled the smaller boy into looking forward. The dragon duelist stared at him impatiently. "Have a seat then, or are you content with standing by the door all day?"

"Oh, sorry." Yugi then walked over to sit across from his rival. He watched as Seto placed his cards on the table to then slid them over to him. Yugi did the same, and they shuffled each other's cards.

"So, what's got Wheeler's leash too tight? Did you eat his last slice of pizza?"

Yugi placed the cards back down on the table to slid them back over to the brunet. "Uh, it's just something silly. It'll pass." _I hope._ He let out another sigh. Seto just let out a humph before giving Yugi back his cards.

And so they started to play. It was actually quite relaxing for Yugi. It had been forever since he had played a simple tabletop duel. He had started off with the Celtic Guardian and a face down card. Seto with the Hitotsu-Me Giant and two face down cards.

"If it was something foolish, then you wouldn't be moping around my stadium."

Yugi looked up as Seto said this while the man revealed a power up card to destroy the Celtic Guardian. Yugi moved the card to the graveyard.

"It's just... a bunch of little fights. It just feels like it's all piling up. We can hardly talk to each other right now without disagreeing on who started which fight." Yugi played Big Shield Gardna in defense mode.

"Sounds trivial."

The smaller boy didn't have much of a defense for Seto's jibe. "Yeah, it is."

Seto placed a few more cards onto the field before ending his turn. He looked over to Yugi and noticed the smaller boy wasn't too into the game. "Have you tried telling him to shut up for once and try listening instead of always running at the mouth?"

Yugi set a monster face down and ended his turn. "I don't know. It just doesn't seem to be working out. I'm not sure what to do."

The young CEO then activated a combo that cleared the field of Yugi's monsters and a chunk of his life points. The shorter boy realized he could have countered that move if he had placed one of his spells cards on the field.

"I'd recommend talking to him then. Ignoring the problem isn't going to make it go away. You should confront it."

Yugi placed a meager defense for his life points on the field and a few face down cards. "I'm not sure what I'd even say."

Seto played a spell card and targeted his monster. Yugi attempted to stop it by activating one of his own spell cards, but it was negated when the older boy activated one of his traps. Yugi noticed he missed another opportunity to stop Seto from wiping out his cards. He just wasn't focused at all.

"You don't sound very convinced. Do you even want to maintain the friendship?"

Yugi looked up quickly from his hand of cards to the older duelist. He glared at him. "Of course I do."

Seto took out another chunk of his life points with a direct attack. "Then it sounds like a no-brainer. What's the problem?"

"I just don't want to make it worse! What do I do if we just get into another argument and he stops talking to me completely?! He's so stubborn and prideful that he won't admit to any mistakes he makes. I just want to tell him I'm sorry for my own stubbornness and tell him I don't want to lose him as a friend. We're so close, like brothers, that I don't know what I'd do if we never spoke again. He's too important to me." Yugi practically shouted this out.

Seto merely stared at him inquisitively as he sacrificed two of his monsters to summon his signature Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Sounds like something you should tell him, not me." With that, Seto made one last direct attack, effectively winning the duel. Yugi stared down at the table in slight shock. He had barely noticed anything that had been going on. Was he really that distracted? "Take this any way you like," Yugi stared back up at Seto when he started to speak again. "If I were you, god forbid if I was, would never be able to live with myself if I was that short, I would tell him what you just told me. And if he cares even a fraction as much as you seem to care about him, he'll listen. Dimwitted as he is."

Yugi marveled at his rival. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Seto was actually trying to help him. "Oh?" It was the only thing that came out of his mouth. His surprise won over any other comment.

"Indeed." Seto then scooped up his cards and stood up from the table. The older boy then turned away from Yugi and began to walk towards the door to the room. "Now if we're done here, I have some important business to get back to."

If Yugi thought he was surprised before, he was completely shocked now. Where were all the witty retorts? He _did_ just win a duel with none other than the King of Games himself. His rival since they first laid eyes on each other. Where was the bragging over his win? The haughty, cocky remarks? Nothing?

"Uh... Kaiba?"

Seto stopped walking, but didn't turn around. "By the way, this duel doesn't count." He then continued for the exit.

Yugi stared at his rival's back in awe. The tall, egotistical, larger than life CEO of Kaiba Corp had just offered him advice, and passed up an opportunity to relish in his win. Did the man really take time out of his day just to have a friendly duel for Yugi's sake? Something about this scenario made him feel a little bit warmer inside. He wanted to say something, anything. "Kaiba!" The tall and imposing man stopped in the threshold of the door. He turned his head to look over his shoulder at the smaller boy. "Thank you." Yugi mumbled.

"Hmph." Was the only reply Yugi received as the CEO then left the room.

As the King of Games sat in his chair a moment longer, he realized he felt much better than he did just moments before. He smiled slightly. Perhaps confronting Joey wouldn't be quite so complicated as he had made it out to be.

* * *

 _Author's Note:_

 _Yay, a one-shot! I hope you liked this little challengefic. :D_


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